The bindings holding them together were tightening, and she never wanted to be away from him. Jolie wanted to be by his side for all eternity.
He was her demon.
He was her mate.
“We should go in and make sure Jacques has called the council,” she stated.
“Are we taking a trip?”
“Yes, we are.”
He grinned wickedly. “I think I need to try out my new gifts.”
“Flynn…”
“What? Like you aren’t curious.”
She was, but still…
“We don’t need what you are getting out. The Tueur is already after us.”
He stopped smiling.
His heart hammered in his chest.
“Are you ashamed?”
She couldn’t believe he thought that.
“Never, my love. I’m simply jealous. All the females will want my man, and I’m too old to fight them all off. This pregnancy thing has aged me.”
That made him laugh.
She was the same Jolie, and he’d always see her as the woman he fell in love with months ago.
He picked her up before helping her get dressed.
“What are you thinking?” she asked. “You’re too quiet.”
“I’m sorry, but I was picturing you kicking vampyre chic ass. I was thinking about sex.”
Jolie snorted.
“Same old Flynn.”
Yeah, despite it all, he was.
∞ Chapter Twenty-Nine ∞
He was waiting for them to come back inside. All the while, Jacques was worried about them. When he tried to reach for his mates, he was only able to feel Jolie.
For some reason, Flynn was off his radar.
That worried him.
Had something happened or was this one of the ‘perks’ Death had given him?
He could only wonder, as their family changed even more. It was like being on a rollercoaster, and Jacques wasn’t sure how long they could hold on through the scary ride.
Jacques needed to get his mind off the situation, and it seemed like a good time to contact Nathaniel’s replacement, Louis Deveraux, and find out where they could find Balzac. He was likely trying to petition council for a place among the other vampyres, mostly since the Harcourte family wanted nothing to do with it.
As he dialed the phone, he found himself waiting for the man to answer. When he finally did, he didn’t really seem enthused to be speaking to him.
“What do you want, Mr. Degaul?”
“We need the location of a member.”
Louis laughed. “It’s not going to happen. We are not helping your family destroy our kind. If you find them…well, that’s up to you, but we won’t be a part of it. As Nathaniel’s replacement, the choice is up to me. I say no. Your mate ripped our primus’s head off. It’s not happening.”
That told Jacques all he needed to know.
Balzac had to be involved in this, and he was likely using the council to hide from his sins.
As he was trying to convince the man to help, Flynn and Jolie walked in. They paused to listen.
As he tried his best, Louis simply wasn’t having it.
When Jacques was failing miserably, Flynn took control. In a very even tone, he spoke, “You will help us. You have no choice.”
There was a pause.
Then they were rewarded.
“They are at the old plantation outside of the town. It’s the run down one on Old Weaver Road.”
“Thank you, Louis. When you hang up, you won’t remember talking to us. In fact, you’re going to sleep for the rest of the night.”
“I am tired.”
“Yes, you are.”
Jolie and Jacques watched Flynn work. It was nothing that they couldn’t do, but they couldn’t do it over a phone. It was as if he had all their powers, but magnified.
“Good night, Louis. Oh, and you’re a pathetic asshole, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
He hung up the phone.
Both of his mates were staring at him.
“What?”
Jolie kissed him.
She planted one right on his mouth. When she pulled away, he was grinning, and his wicked looking fangs were out.
“Holy shit! Those are nasty looking!” Jacques said, moving closer to investigate. He’d never seen fangs that sharp and long.
Flynn let the man touch them.
“Well, it gets worse.” He thought about it, and they lengthened.
Jacques stared. “You’re bigger than I am.”
Flynn started laughing. “I’m not going there.”
Then he changed his mind. Why the hell not?
He went to say something, but Jolie covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t do it! English isn’t his first language.”
Flynn moved toward their bed to lounge against the headboard. “Well, if you say so, baby.”
Jolie hopped onto the bed beside him. “Come on, Jacques.”
He was wary.
Flynn saw it in his eyes.
“I don’t bite, unless you want me to,” Flynn offered, teasingly. When the man still didn’t move near him, Flynn was worried.
“Jacques?” Jolie said.
“You have bite marks on your neck,” he said.
Jolie touched her throat. “I do? They didn’t heal?”
Flynn looked at her neck. “You do, baby, I’m sorry. They closed but they’re still there.”
He wasn’t surprised.
She carried his mark.
She touched his cheek. “It’s okay, Flynn. I’m fine.” And she was. After all, the heat from his bite was still radiating through her body.
He kissed her knuckles, saying nothing more.
Jolie glanced over at Jacques. “Are you okay?”
He wasn’t sure.
Flynn was…strong.
If he went rogue, they were dead.
“You think I’d kill you?” he asked. “You think I’d hurt either one of you?”
Jacques couldn’t help but be wary. This was odd, and he didn’t trust Death.
“Jacques?” Jolie asked.
“I’m sorry, but he’s not the same. I can tell. I can’t read him, but clearly, he can read me. That puts me at a disadvantage.”
Flynn got off the bed.
He figured this was going to happen.
How could he fight it?
“I’m going to go take a shower. If you don’t want me to go with you tonight, I won’t. I’ll go to bed.”
He didn’t look back. Instead, Flynn entered the bathroom and slammed the door.
The wall shook.
“Jacques, what’s wrong with you?”
He looked at her as if she was the crazy one. “He’s not Flynn. He’s something different. Can’t you feel it?”
“Yes, and he is my Flynn. He’s our mate. He’s just special now.”
Jacques was worried.
“Your neck…”
She closed her eyes. “You can’t do this to him. He died for us more than once, and now he can never go back to who he once was. This is our new and improved mate, and you have to love him.”
Jacques didn’t say anything.
“Jolie.”
“No! No, Jacques. You will not treat him like this. I won’t have it. He’s ours to love, and we can’t let him hurt. He has been nothing but loving to both of us. He’s died to save your child. He’s given up so much. You have to be the one who bends on this one.”
He felt horrible.
“He’s a demon. Yes, that’s worrisome, but I’ve been with him. It’s Flynn. I can feel him in there. You have to trust him. I know I do—with all of our lives.”
Sitting on the bed, he dropped his head into his hands. “What if he doesn’t want to share you with me? I can’t fight him. He’s stronger. Before, I had a fighting chance. Before…I could take him. Now…I can’t.”
“He’d never do that to you. He’s afraid, Jacques. He’s scared that he’s going to be trapp
ed without us.”
She told him about the knife.
His eyes went big.
“I know. Imagine how shitty that would be if we were to perish. He can’t die. If we leave, he’s going to walk the earth alone. I can’t let that happen. He sacrificed his soul for us.”
She was right.
“I still love him,” Jacques said. “Your neck has me a little freaked out.”
Jolie touched it. “It was amazing. You should try it.”
He wasn’t sure Flynn would let him.
“Go talk to him.”
He knew he had to. Before he left, he hugged her. “We’ll be ready to go shortly.”
She knew they’d work through it.
“Then, I think we should call Mambo to see if she can protect you and the children. That way you’ll be safe, even if Flynn isn’t around.”
Jolie touched his cheek.
“I think that little extra edge may give us what we need,” she admitted.
“We’ll go there tomorrow and get it taken care of then. I have no problem with using some voodoo to protect us. After all, she brought me back once, she may be able to keep me alive long enough to give our daughters’ life.”
They both knew they couldn’t put all of their eggs in one basket. If Flynn was out of the equation, they needed a backup plan.
“Jolie,” he said softly touching her cheek. He wanted to say so much but the words wouldn’t come to him. He just needed to protect her at any cost.
“I know, Jacques. Go talk to Flynn. We need to all be united.”
He headed toward the bathroom. When he opened the door, Flynn wasn’t inside.
Instead, he found him on the balcony, overlooking their yard. The moon was high in the sky, and Flynn was staring at it.
“Can we talk?”
Flynn didn’t move. “Sure.”
“I’m afraid of you.”
“I’m afraid of me too. I have something living inside me, Jolie might die, and you’re scared to come near me. That’s not boding well for my part in this relationship. I feel like a man walking a very thin line, right before he’s voted off the relationship island.”
Jacques leaned against the rail, mimicking his position. “Will you hurt us?”
“I’d die first—if I could die. You and Jolie are all I have. I wouldn’t hurt either of you—not intentionally.”
“I want you to bite me.”
He glanced over.
“I think I need to get over this fear, and you’re the only way that’s going to happen.”
Flynn still didn’t speak.
“Jolie said it feels amazing. I want to be part of that. Bite me.”
He started laughing. “What? No foreplay?” Flynn teased, but the look didn’t make it to his eyes.
“I offered to kiss you, but you got bugged out.”
“Weirded. The phrase is ‘weirded out’.”
“Whatever.”
They didn’t speak.
“I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I want you to feel the same as you did. I’m still Flynn. I’m still a cop. I still carry guns, and Jolie’s still my fiancée. We didn’t stop loving her when we found out about Death using her as the Harbinger. I’m the same way. I don’t want you both to stop loving me.”
The bigger man looked beat down.
It was like this was the final straw in a long line of disappointments in Flynn’s life.
Failed relationships.
His parent’s deaths.
Now this.
“Then I need to feel you drink from me. Your energy feels different, but I know the minute you do it, I’ll be able to get inside you.”
Flynn turned. “I wish you’d believe me simply because of what we had before. You wouldn’t have doubted me before this.”
He was right.
“Vampyres are very sense orientated. You smell differently. I need to taste you and feel you. I need to reassure myself, and then I’ll be okay.”
Flynn shrugged. “If that’s what it takes,” he offered.
As Jacques moved closer, Flynn called to that dark place within him. Immediately, his fangs grew and his eyes went dark. “I won’t hurt you.”
Jacques stopped moving. There was no doubt who the bigger alpha was, and it wasn’t him. This was a first for a very old guardian.
Flynn radiated power.
Instead of letting fear win, he focused on the man approaching him. While he expected Flynn to haze it, making him relax, he didn’t. Flynn wasn’t cautious either.
He could feel his mate touching his mind.
‘I’m still me,’ he reassured.
Flynn pulled Jacques against his body and sought out that one spot on the man’s neck that he favored. As he breathed in the familiar scent, he needed to know. “Do I feel the same?” he asked softly, before continuing.
“Yes.”
He lapped at his throat.
Jacques shivered.
Flynn took that as his sign. He bit into his mate’s throat, giving him what he wanted.
The wet, warm blood flooded his mouth.
It was familiar.
It was mate.
Jacques on the other hand couldn’t focus. The fangs seemed to get longer in his flesh, and the pleasure overwhelmed him. With Flynn holding him to his body, he could feel himself slipping into the pleasure of it.
He let himself go.
Jacques let the trust replace the fear.
Flynn felt the same.
The pleasure wasn’t less—it was more. As his mate continued drinking from his throat, Jacques was able to see inside him.
The memories were the same.
The man was the same.
Here was a part of him.
As his arms wrapped around his mate’s waist, he continued to enjoy the slow sucking on his neck. At one point, his legs began giving out, and Flynn was keeping him upright.
Slowly, regretfully, Flynn began setting him free.
Jacques moaned.
When he opened his eyes, Flynn blinked, and the deep black was gone, and in their place was the familiar blue.
“Are you okay?”
“I can’t feel my legs.”
Flynn looked worried. “Really?”
Jacques laughed. “No, not really. Jolie was right. I’m fine.” He rested his forehead against Flynn’s. “I’m sorry I hurt you before. You were right. You’re in there. I could feel you trying to soothe my nerves.”
Flynn ran his hand up and down his mate’s back. “I would never hurt you or Jolie. I love you both.”
Jacques believed him.
Death help them, but he believed him.
“Do you have access to my mind?” Flynn asked.
Jacques steadied himself and tried to get into his mate’s head. He was in.
Then he wasn’t.
Then he was.
It was like some party trick, and Flynn must have heard his thoughts.
“I can shut it off. I don’t know how, but I can.”
Jacques laughed. “That might come in handy when you buy presents for Jolie. I’m a little jealous.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I know.”
When the fangs remained out, Jacques was curious. “My neck?”
Flynn looked. They were closed, but there were indeed two marks there.
“Maybe they’re not meant to go away. Maybe, that’s just part of it. You two are claimed as mine.”
That gave Jacques a warm feeling in his belly.
“We should go,” Flynn offered.
“Agreed.”
As they headed through the bathroom, Flynn dropped his arm over Jacques’s shoulders.
“I love you, Jacques.”
He grinned.
“I love you too, Flynn.”
And he did.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Across Town
When the Hummer came to a stop, all three of them were a little happy that Balzac was suffering. After all, he deserved it.
> When he and some of the family had gone behind her back to remove Mathew, they had to leave. Now, the irony wasn’t lost on her that it had been for naught.
Had Balzac simply waited, Mathew would have betrayed her, and they could have remained.
Still, the man had to learn a hard lesson.
Jolie’s eyes met Jacques’s in the rearview mirror and memories passed between them—ones where there was no money, no luxury, and only the run down homes that they had been forced to call their own as Jolie amassed her hefty fortune. She smiled at him and wouldn’t have traded any second of those hard times with Jacques.
“It is not easy to start a society,” Jolie said out loud for Flynn.
Flynn reached back and patted her leg. “Did you start out like this?”
They both laughed.
“No, it wasn’t as nice as this. In fact, it was worse.”
She was right.
It had been.
“Do you think he’ll be happy to see us?” Flynn asked, laughing.
“Oh, he’s going to be smug,” Jolie added.
“I can wipe the smug right off his face,” Flynn stated. “In fact, that would be a wonderful late Christmas present if anyone wants to give me that.”
Oh, it could be arranged.
“I hope he’s pompous,” stated Jacques. “I want to watch Flynn make him bleed—especially if he called the Tueur on us.”
They all got out.
It was show time.
This wasn’t only about Balzac, but about testing out Flynn’s gift.
At the door, Flynn touched it, and it swung open.
Both of his mates stared at him.
It wasn’t like he could walk in…
Then he did.
“I like this gift,” stated Jacques. “Now, that’s handy.”
Jolie did too. In fact, she could feel the energy giving way as she tried to enter.
She didn’t have a problem.
When Jacques tried, he couldn’t get past the barrier.
Jolie lifted a brow. “What’s different?” she asked.
“I’m in you,” Flynn stated. “You fed from me during sex, and I’ve left a little of me behind. Jacques didn’t feed from me.”
“I will later. I want to be able to do this too.”
Flynn was glad that the man seemed to be accepting what they were dealt. It made it easier.
Jolie invited him in.
Dangerous Influence (The Harcourte Vampyre Society Book 5) Page 36